A High-Efficiency Class F MMIC Power Amplifier at 4.0 GHz Using AlGaN/GaN HEMT Technology

A high-efficiency class F MMIC power amplifier designed at 4 GHz using AlGaN/GaN HEMT technology is presented. At VDS = 20 V the circuit produced 69 % PAE, 30.4 dBm of output power and gain of 11.4 dB. When the drain bias was increased to 35 V, the circuit produced 60% PAE, 34.3 dBm of output power and gain of 12.3 dBm, corresponding to a power density of 5.36 W/mm. The results show significant improvement in PAE compared to the previously published results for MMICs implemented using class E topologies.